Discovery to premiere 'Man vs. Wild's second season on November 9

By Christopher Rocchio, 10/30/2007

Discovery Channel has announced the second season of Man vs. Wild, a reality series that follows survival expert Bear Grylls as he battles the elements at various locations around the world, will premiere on Friday, November 9 at 9PM ET/PT.

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Following its premiere broadcast, Discovery will air a one-hour special -- Bear's Mission Everest -- at 10PM ET/PT, which will document the 33-year-old survival expert's spring trip to the Himalayas as he attempts to fulfill his lifelong dream of flying a powered paraglider higher than Mount Everest.

Aided by friend Gilo Cardozo and their team, the special will follow Grylls from his preparations up until the actual flight, which was also done to raise money for a children's charity.

Man vs. Wild's six regular second-season episodes will focus on three different geographic areas visited by Grylls, with each being the subject of two consecutive weeks of broadcasts. Episodes on November 9 and 16 will focus on the Sahara Desert; November 23 and 30 installments will document Panama's dense jungles; and the isolated plains and glaciers of Patagonis will be the center of the December 7 and 14 episodes.

"We continue to seek out new exciting and daring adventures for Bear, and he continues to do what he does best," said Discovery Channel president Jane Root. "From an expedition documentary to hands-on demonstrations of life-saving tips for viewers, Bear Grylls brings out the adventurer in all of us."

Grylls and Man vs. Wild recently received some criticism from the media as well as fans. Following an investigation by the U.K.'s Channel 4 -- which broadcasts the reality series under the title Born Survivor: Bear Grylls in Britain -- Discovery Channel decided to air re-edited versions of Man vs. Wild's first season to acknowledge that some scenes in the unscripted series are staged.

While Discovery implemented a voiceover during segments of the re-edited first-season episodes in which viewers were originally led to believe Grylls didn't receive any off-camera assistance, second-season episodes were reportedly "edited from the get-go" to highlight the production crew's role in assisting Grylls.